TV’s Future Looks Incredible If You Ask TV Executives

With just a couple weeks left before they start to wrangle with Madison Avenue over ad prices for the fall TV season, media companies used their quarterly earnings reports last week for pre-“upfront” bluster.

Of course, posturing is typical this time of year, when advertisers get ready to buy commercials in advance of the fall season. But TV executives are setting the bar higher than usual, increasing base-line expectations.

By last Tuesday, CBS Corp.’s Leslie Moonves was calling the ad market “extremely hot,” and Comcast Corp.’s Steve Burke on Wednesday said the upswing made the timing of his company’s purchase of NBC “quite fortuitous.”

Time Warner Inc. CEO Jeff Bewkes later said “all the indicators are very positive.” News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey chimed in that both cable and broadcast TV were “well-positioned for truly strong results,” and Univision Communications Inc. operating chief Randy Falco said “signals are pointing to a very strong upfront.”

With rates for last-minute commercials selling at big markups, even some buyers of advertising agree it’s a seller’s market.

“The networks obviously want to talk it up in advance of the negotiations, and the agencies probably want to talk it down in advance,” Martin Sorrell, CEO of advertising company WPP PLC, said on a recent conference call. “But if you look at the underlying strength of the U.S.-based networks, they are doing pretty well.”